Ok, like many users of VMware Player I'm not an IT professional, I am just a regular home computer user who installed VMware Player to 'play' with my old Windows 98 apps that won't run on Windows XP easily, in addition I have some old hardware that I wanted to use with it that is not supported under XP (or Windows 2000) anymore, one such item attaches to my Host computers Com1 port, additionally I want to be able to give my Win98 VM appliance the ability to access my 'winmodem' which is installed in my Windows XP host computer. I have tried several methods but I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, I have tried creating a named pipe (not exactly sure what this is really) using some of the examples I've seen (I don't know if I need to have some additional software running to manage the pipe on the host OS side or not), as well as simply trying to set it to use physical ports (I tried 'Autodetect', COM1, and COM2, all with the same 'access denied' result). Follows is a rough listing of my host configuration and my guest configuration:
Host Configuration:
P4 2.8 Ghz Processor w/HT
300Gb Maxtor SATA HD
2.5Gb DDR RAM
Windows XP Pro w/SP3
LPT1: & COM1: enabled in BIOS, (COM2 physically not present on board, no pin header, or any other connector for it)
VMware Player version 3.0.1
COM1 connected to external peripheral (communication tested using hyperterminal on host OS to verify that device is able to communicate with system)
Internal 'winmodem' (can't remember make or model off hand) assigned to COM2 in Host OS (again I can access it through hyperterminal on host OS alright)
Host does NOT have internet access at present time (I use the computers at the local public library to download whatever files I need, and to post to these forums).
VMware Appliance Configuration:
LPT1, COM1 & COM2 enabled in 'virtual' BIOS
Windows 98SE with 'unofficial' service pack obtained from internet
2 serial port devices added in VM settings (tried to configure in various ways with no success, see above)
Virtual Printer NOT installed
VMware Tools "WinPre2K" installed successfully
USB device added in VM settings (managed to get USB 2.0 support functioning using generic USB 2.0 driver from: http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/win98se-usb-mass-storage-drivers.php)
Soundcard device added in VM settings (drivers installed from Creative Labs website)
Network device added in VM settings (configured in bridged mode as I am not connected to a router but rather a network hub and all IP addresses are assigned manually), networking works fine in both Host OS and Guest OS.
Only one remaining unrecognized device in Windows 98 hardware manager, "PCI System Peripheral", according to another post I read this is likely a VMCI component (I doubt this is why my com ports won't work as I get an error message even before the guest OS loads, it shows up while the main appliance boot screen with the 'Press F2 to enter setup" prompt is still being displayed).
Basically I'm at my wits end, I know that in theory it 'should' work by pointing each of my VM's serial devices at the physical ports, but it doesn't!! I would appreciate any help anyone can provide on this matter.
Thanks,
Edwin Barton